INDIANAPOLIS -- Eddie Cheever Jr. ended 20 years of
frustration while Kenny
Brack enjoyed a Swedish smorgasbord as the third
Pep Boys Indy Racing League season played out in 1998.

Eddie Cheever, 1998 Indy 500 Winner

Cheever, a veteran of more Formula One races than any other American
driver, finally ended a nine-year search for victory in his homeland's
most
renowned race -- the Indianapolis 500 -- with a powerful win in the 82nd
running of the event on May 24. Cheever's victory in the Rachel's Gourmet
Potato Chips Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear came at age 40 and in his 223rd major
league open-wheel race stretching back to 1978.

Cheever's only other win during all of that time came in the
rain-shortened Pep Boys IRL race in 1997 at Walt Disney World Speedway.
Brack, a native of Glava, Sweden, found a racing home in the most unlikely
place. American racing legend A.J.
Foyt, winner of four Indy 500's, took
Brack on board as a teammate to American short-track star Billy
Boat.

Boat and Brack formed a one-two punch throughout the whole season, making
them the drivers to beat either for the PPG Pole or the race victory.
Brack capitalized on his opportunity by turning the second half of the
season into a championship run with a league-record three-race winning
streak. His smorgasbord of wins in his Power Team Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear
came on two 1.5-mile sea-level tracks at Charlotte and Atlanta under the
lights and under a blazing sun on the mile-high, mile-long track outside
Colorado Springs, Colo.

That streak helped Brack secure the Pep Boys Million bonus as the season
champion from new series sponsor Pep Boys, which joined the league just
before the season opener in January at Orlando, Fla. Brack scored 332
points, 40 more than runner-up Davey
Hamilton.

Meanwhile, Boat drove his Conseco Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear to the PPG Pole
at Indy and at five other races. He won the True Value 500 in June at
Texas
Motor Speedway, prevailing in a stirring duel with Greg
Ray. However, Boat,
a college graduate and short-track racing star out of Phoenix, missed two
races after suffering a broken leg in a crash in late June at New
Hampshire.

Tony Stewart

1996-97 league champion Tony Stewart and Scott
Sharp each win twice this
season, and John
Paul Jr. and Arie
Luyendyk win one race apiece. Stewart,
driving the Glidden-Menards-Special Dallara/Aurora/Firestone, also added
four PPG poles for an IRL career record of nine and pushed his career laps
led to 1,502, 1,085 more than runner-up Jeff
Ward.

Ward captured the Phoenix pole, the only one not won by either Boat or
Stewart.

Cheever, Brack, Boat and Stewart all topped $1 million in earnings.
Cheever led the way with $1,811,200, the largest chunk of $1,433,000
coming
from his Indy victory. Brack closed with $1,096,700, and he and Foyt
collected another $1 million check at the season-ending banquet Nov. 21 as
driving and car owner champions. Boat earned $1,004,150 and Stewart
$1,002,850.

For Luyendyk, who won the season finale at Las Vegas, and Stewart it was a
farewell season. Luyendyk, the Dutchman who won two Indy 500s and set all
of the speed records at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, announced on Nov.
20 he would drive one last race for car owner Fred Treadway at the Indy
500
in 1999 and then retire at age 45. Stewart will move to NASCAR's Winston
Cup series next year. However, Stewart's stock-car owner, Joe Gibbs, has
arranged for him to drive at Indy on May 30 and then fly to Charlotte,
N.C., for the Coca-Cola 600 that night.

Stewart jump-started the 1998 season by grabbing the PPG Pole, leading 132
laps and taking the checkered flag by 8.5 seconds over Ward in the Indy
200
at Walt Disney World Speedway in January.

At Phoenix in late March it appeared Stewart was well on his way to a
second straight victory. But during a late restart following an accident,
Stewart was unable to immediately get around leader Sharp's teammate, Mark
Dismore. When he did, it was too late to overtake Sharp's Delphi
Automotive
Systems Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear. Sharp won the Dura-Lube 200 by 2.366
seconds.

For the first time, the Indianapolis 500 became a one-weekend qualifying
event. An exciting two days of qualifying yielded plenty of cars bumping
in
and out of the field, with a close field of 33 cars the result.

Boat charged to the PPG Pole with a speed of 223.503 mph, and Brack was on
the outside at 220.982. But the shocker was Texan Greg Ray sitting between
them at 221.125. At the start of the week, he announced his major sponsor
had pulled out. Only help from fans and a few last-minutes sponsors
provided the funds to continue. He led 18 laps in the race.

Stewart took the lead from fourth on Lap 21. Then his engine malfunctioned
on the next lap, and he placed 33rd and last for a finish that eventually
might have cost him the season championship.

Cheever, starting 17th, drove the race of his life. He took the lead for
the first time on Lap 68 and regained it from 1996 Indy champion Buddy
Lazier for the last time on Lap 178. He turned the fastest lead lap of
213.904 mph on Lap 187 and refused to yield to Lazier on a restart on Lap
195, blocking Lazier's passing efforts down the straight and then charging
on to the win.

"The last 20 laps were the hardest I've ever driven," said a weary but
ecstatic Cheever.

At Texas, Ray attained a one-race local sponsor and drove fearlessly
before nearly 100,000 screaming hometown fans, chasing down Boat on Lap
201
of the True Value 500. But Boat responded and regained the lead on the
next
circuit and held for six more to score his first IRL victory by a mere
.928
of a second.

Three weeks later at New Hampshire, Stewart led the last 38 laps and
outlasted Scott
Goodyear in the Pennzoil Panther G Force/Aurora/Goodyear to
win by 1.788 seconds. Boat was injured, and Foyt hired Ray as a two-race
replacement.

Next the series moved to the high-banked Dover (Del.) Downs International
Speedway for the first time. Sharp led 145 of 248 laps in a tough event,
winning the Pep Boys 400K by barely six-tenths of a second over the
hard-charging Lazier, who nearly rear-ended him at the line in a dramatic
finish.

Brack was sixth in the series point standings after finishing 10th at
Dover, seemingly an outside player in the race for the championship. But
then the greatest run in series history started six days later at the
VisionAire 500 in Charlotte.

Foyt's Power Team crew did a great job of keeping Brack on the same lap
with the leaders on the final pit stop. Brack then did the rest,
methodically and speedily running down Ward in the next 20 laps. He made a
thrilling three-wide pass of Ward for the lead with 13 laps to go and
motored on to win by 5.602 seconds.

Brack made another late pass - over Team Menard driver Robbie
Buhl on Lap
197 - in the Radisson 200 at Pikes Peak International Raceway to win his
second in a row. Boat won the first of four consecutive PPG Poles in his
comeback from injuries suffered at New Hampshire.

It was on to Atlanta. Brack once again displayed his comeback style as the
Pep Boys IRL brought open-wheel racing to the Deep South for the first
time
since the early 1980s. This time more than 60,000 fans cheered Brack to
his
record third straight win.

Brack passed Ward one lap sooner for the lead than he did at Charlotte.
Hamilton kept his bid for the title alive with a second-place finish in
the
Reebok-Nienhouse Motorsports Dallara/Aurora/Goodyear.

The league then made a second visit of the season to Texas in
mid-September for the Lone Star 500, and John Paul Jr. scored a popular
victory for the Jonathan Byrd/Clayton Cunningham team. Paul had replaced
Mike Groff earlier in the season and had not won a race since 1983.

Robby Unser

Robby Unser, son of three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Bobby Unser,
finished second. It was his best finish en route to winning Sprint PCS
Rookie of the Year honors in The Children's Beverage Group G
Force/Aurora/Goodyear owned by Cheever.

Boat finished 14th at Texas. But combined with his victory in the True
Value 500 in June, he scored enough points to win the $100,000 Texas
Two-Step Championship bonus awarded to the driver who scored the most
combined points in the two races this year at Texas.

Brack placed fifth at Texas and carried a 31-point lead over Hamilton into
the finale at Las Vegas. Luyendyk won his fourth career IRL race after the
team switched engine builders. Brack hung on for a 10th-place finish to
clinch the title and also earned $50,000 for winning two of the three
races
in the MCI-Pep Boys Million Dollar Driver Sweepstakes contest. Brack's two
challengers for the season title finished behind him at Vegas, Hamilton
19th and Stewart 14th.

Hamilton settled for a second straight second in the final standings, by a
332-292 count. Stewart ended third with 289.